In Part 1 of this topic, I discussed my ideas and preferences for creating assignments and my workflow in Google Classroom. Assigning the work is easy, but it’s in deciding how to read, respond to, and grade, where things can get complicated.

Stop Wasting Time

I made a huge push last year to not waste time and to help students find ways to be more productive, too. Technology can help us do this in powerful ways. When students submit work that does not meet minimum requirements, I do not accept it or provide feedback to it. I want to students to hold themselves accountable, to take pride in their work, and to submit their best efforts. This doesn’t mean the work has to be perfect, but it should be a true attempt at learning and following guidelines.

When students have turned in work on Classroom, I open it all up right away. I don’t necessarily read it then, but I skim and preview. I like to do this through Classroom, by opening up each document but you can also preview it through the Classroom folder in Drive. I use CNTRL + click to open in a new tab and open 5-10 at once. Then, I scroll through with ALT + TAB to rotate the open tabs and close each one with CNTRL + W to close out each tab. In 5 minutes, I can skim an entire class set of work and at least know which students did not meet the requirements. And then, I return some of it.

By checking off a group of students in a class, you can return and provide private comments or e-mail feedback just for those students. I write something like: This work does not meet the requirements and cannot earn credit. Please revise and resubmit my tomorrow night or make an extra help appointment. Students who follow these directions will later submit work that is stronger, and I’m not wasting time responding to the work that isn’t ready.

Turn it In or Else!

If you follow the wisdom of the blank template assignment (see Part 1), you can see students’ work in progress whether they are turned in or not. However, I will only read work that is turned in. For me, reading work in progress to provide a summative response and feedback is akin to searching their binders to find the work the students forgot to turn in. I hold my students responsible for hitting that Turn it in button or Mark as done, as is applicable. This teaches consistency and responsibility, and gives them another indication that strong procedures matter.

Providing Comments

I used to be a big fan of shorthand and abbreviation in responding to student work. I taught editing marks and had them practice using them in peer feedback. Technology gives me more ways to provide feedback, but drawing all over a Google Doc, and matching my handwritten symbols to electronic ones, isn’t always the most productive use of time. I’ve explored Chrome extensions like Permanent Clipboard to save canned comments but couldn’t get used to it.

The best advice I have for commenting on work is find a balance that makes sense for you. I’m an English teacher so I usually grade writing and comment a lot. What I do isn’t the end-all-be-all, but it does allow me to give more feedback than ever before and to do so faster and better. Find some screenshots of these three steps at the bottom of this post.

In Text Comments. I open the Google Doc and insert comments in response to specific lines, words, paragraph, etc. These are like my editing marks and are usually specific and focused. Depending on the assignment or student, I will leave anywhere from 4-10 comments (or more). I’m not a fan of suggested edits, generally, but may start to use them a little more this year. I want to make sure the students are doing the work towards growth and revision, not me.

Return Comments. I rarely comment on common trends across a class in individual’s work. Instead, I wait for my return comments. I take notes as I grade and find the big picture stuff that every student should consider, trying to keep it important and constructive, balancing the positive and negative. I then return the work to all of my students at once, but only have to write the comments once. I use this space for the summative and holistic comments, typically, and can also break them down into smaller groups of return batches.

Rubrics. This really comes in between 1 and 2, but I typically use Google Sheets Rubrics with Doctopus and Goobric to assign rubric-based grades to writing. I also provide summative comments for the individual here. Now my students have feedback in three different ways to help them understand the qualities of their work. Goobric and Doctopus deserve their own posts but you can find out so much with a quick Google search if you’re interested.

As I write this, I think ahead to my upcoming school year and wonder if I missed anything. Am I missing a best practice to make this all easier? Will the updates to Google Classroom change my practice? I would love to hear your feedback--comment away or reach out on Twitter.

I've retweeted it all week long, but in case you missed it, faithful reader, I wanted to share my guest blog post for blog at Imagine Easy, the wonderful people who make Easy Bib and Easy Scholar. I wrote about what I've learned from my start in the 1:1 classroom and gave some advice to help teachers start of the new school year.

I'm really proud of this one--it's something I've lived first hand and had a lot to say about. Sometimes, a topic or piece just clips with you. I hope you'll check it out: 6 Tips for Managing the 1:1 Classroom

As I gear up for the new year, like most teachers, I'm reviewing my course information, updating lesson plans, and rethinking my classroom culture. I'm lucky to be teaching English 10, a course which I've taught, refined, and honed throughout my career. I can teach Elie Wiesel's Night backwards and forwards; I've surely read and taught it enough times. But, like most good teachers, I recognize the need for my practice to evolve.

Each year, I ask myself the same questions: What do I want learning in my classroom to look like? What products will students create? How would I want students to talk about my teaching, lessons, and curriculum? What do I want them to leave my classroom with? Skills? Content? More?

The past few years, my shifts have involved technology and its implementation. Now that I've developed my norms and have a few years under my belt in the 1:1 classroom, I'm looking for more. I want to make more meaningful shifts to help my students create, collaborate, and connect with each other and with the world.

I've seen a quote or meme going around lately, and am disappointed I couldn't find it now. If anyone has it, please let me know, and I'll correct it and eagerly provide credit. Would you want a doctor or lawyer who was not up to date on the best professional practices? Teachers are professionals, too, and experts in their field; we should act like professionals and be treated as such. I've written a lot this summer about the power of being a connected educator, personalizing professional development, and attending conferences. I think there's an unparalleled value in learning from peers, evolving, and moving forward. Technology, the world, and our students won't stop moving. Neither can we.

My 5 C's for 2015

Look how clever I am: 5 C phrases. Maybe I'm on to something here?

1. Centered on Students

Classroom learning should be student-centered from day one. I don't need to be talking at my students on the first day; I need to introduce them to the types of learning opportunities they will build for themselves throughout the school year. I need to facilitate and put my money where my mouth is. I like to think I have a pretty student centered classroom, but this year I want to jump into it on day one, like it's the most normal thing in the world. Students will be working with technology, at different paces, sometimes on different assignments, all towards standards and goals. I also want to introduce not only project-based but problem-based learning to make their growth more authentic and meaningful.

2. Connected Learning

It's not enough for my students to connect with each other; it's time to share our challenges, successes, and learning with the peers, teachers, the community, and world. I want my class to be built on connections and collaborations, incorporating backchannelling, Twitter, Google Hangouts, and other social media on a regular basis. One of my goals is to have students regularly Tweeting about our learning to a class hashtag to share with the world. Technology opens up so many doors and opportunities to connect and learn; I want to embrace them all.

3. Creation

Students must create. I've written about that idea plenty, most recently in a guest post at FreeTech4Teachers.comhere. I want my students to always produce something that documents learning. This will often be writing but has ranged from essays to podcasts to videos or other presentations. I want to find more ways for students to demonstrate skill and knowledge, and then to share it. This year, I plan to have students blog more and construct electronic portfolios to show their growth and reflect on new learning. Hopefully these products will help students leave my class and high school with work they are not only proud of, but that documents essential 21st century skills and experiences for their futures.

4. Community of Learners

We are a community of learners. Collaborating and interacting on Google Communities helps manage this camaraderie, but I want to place a new importance on the community. Students must be able to work together and live together. Jack from Lost said it, and it's a quote I come back to often: "If we can't live together, we're going to die alone." It's a bit dramatic, but I don't want my students to wait around for me to teach them, but to help foster their curiosity, creativity, and independence. "Every man for himself is not going to work," Jack says in the clip below. From asking each other before they ask me to creating a list of online classroom norms to a class hashtag, I want my students to actively collaborate as a community of learners to create the best learning experiences possible.

5. Communicate

I think I build strong relationships with my students. Now I want to do better with other stake holders: parents, guidance counselors, administration, etc. I want complete transparency and clear communication in my classroom. To that end, I am revamping my class webpage, english10.aschoenbart.com, to provide everyone with more information than ever before. I have plans in the works to use forms and add-ons to organize and automate communications based on data about student behavior and performance, so I am more actively involved in communication, more proactive in recognizing success and overcoming challenges, and using data to drive my instruction. Expect a blog post on this topic soon.

There's my 5 C's for 2015. I could list a dozen things I want to do better but I want to stay focused. Wish me luck. What shifts are you planning in your classroom or teaching?

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been using a lot of If This Then That. It was a little tricky at first, but now I’m kind of addicted, and have often combined recipes to make my workflow easier. IFTTT is a service that creates logical recipes--think of them like programs or commands--that connect different apps.

An easy one is this recipe: Blogger to Facebook. If I publish a new post on Blogger, automatically post it on my Facebook feed. For each recipe, I can see how many times it’s run to double check my work, can turn it on or off, or check the activity log as necessary.

I like to think of it like a variation on app smashing, and with some trial-and-error and creativity, you can make a lot of cool things happen. Here are some easy recipes I use and why you might want to try them out, too.

I’m enjoying Blogging and want to grow my audience. An easy way to this is to promote my posts more on social media. This recipe will automatically share my Blogger posts on my Facebook stream. I can customize the post itself (title, text, link, etc.) and it does the rest. Find similar recipes to post to Twitter, Instagram, etc., or pretty much from any social media site to another.

One simple recipe is to create a Twitter list based on a hashtag. For example, I want to see who posts using the #edcampMVille to see what Twitter traffic is generated for our upcoming event. This recipe will add anyone who tweets with the hashtag to a Twitter list so I can see who is engaging with us on social media. There are similar recipes to favorite and retweet, too.

I love organizing data on Google sheets. In addition to creating a Twitter list in the example above, I can track users and Tweets based on a specific hashtag to a Google Sheet (and many other similar options--evernote, pocket, etc.). I wanted to reach anyone who Tweeted with #nyedchat to share information about #edcampMVille; this recipe allowed me to track those users so I knew who to reach out to and tag in my posts. With some creative work in Sheets and another IFTTT recipe (see the next bullet!), I was able to automatically Tweet at users to invite them pretty easily, raising awareness for our event. Apply this to any event, hashtag, or target audience you want to reach and you’re good to know.

This one is really cool and involves my new favorite pasttime: app smashing. By combining this recipe with the Google Sheets add-on, Form Mule, I can automate my Tweeting based on certain conditions. For example, when someone adds an event to #EdTechCalNYNJ, I wanted to automatically thank them.

To do this, I successfully smashed the recipe above with Form Mule. When someone adds to the calendar via a Google Form, Form Mule automatically sends a mail merge to a GMail account with the following subject line:

Form Mule is triggered whenever the form is submitted and the <<Tags>> above are replaced with the actual information.

Then, the #IFTTT recipe above does the rest. The recipe is programmed so that whenever my e-mail address sends an e-mail to a secondary address, then Tweet out the subject line. Voila! The key here is to have a secondary e-mail just for the recipe’s automatic Tweeting.

Teacher-Centered PD, Growing Your #PLN, and Making Communities Work For You

I've written a lot about how I use Google Communities in the classroom to build community and engage students. Find the relevant posts here. Now I want to shift the focus and write about how they can help you--the teacher.

Google Communities have the power to be important tools in professional development and growth for all teachers. I participate in a lot of Communities--see the screen shot below--both private and public. Some are created for closed purposes, like PD in my school and others are wide open to anyone and everyone.

Twitter is usually where I start when I have a question or need help. I send a Tweet with a relevant hashtag and hope that I have a follower who is knowledgeable, engaged, and interested enough to help out--and usually I find my answers. But because Communities offer focused and specific groups, filled with experts in our field, their power and potential shouldn't be left out of the conversation.

Public Communities

In my district, Communities were one of the first GAFE tools we used, so even before I was on Twitter, I was searching for Communities. I found help in ones like Google Classroom and Google Apps for Education. I love going back to these Communities every once in a while and scrolling through for updates, ideas, and resources.

These days, I'm much more likely to be participating--or lurking--in communities like Awesome Table or Apps Scripts for Education - Users and Builders. I've become obsessed with add-on smashing and combining so many of the great GAFE add-ons, scripts, and extensions to increase productivity and impact of edtech. But I can't code, barely understand java, and need help. These Communities are where I turn to. Not only can I read everyone's thoughts, posts, and resources, but I can ask them for help--and always get it. When I couldn't figure out Awesome Table, needed to find the old Form Mule, or wanted to learn Doctopus, the members and moderators here helped me quickly and happily. It's also cool to note that many of these moderators are creators of the scripts, too, so you really can turn to experts.

I asked a question and Andrew Stillman responded himself. I got to talk to the experts, learn from them, and do better next time.

Private Communities

I think there's also a lot of value in a closed Community, too. I've seen Communities for professional development classes, topics, departments, or even the whole faculty. Many use Google Classroom for this now, but I still find Communities to be much more effective for discussion and sharing.

In my district, I taught a professional development class, Applying Google Tools in the Secondary Classroom. We shared everything we liked, learned, and practiced on the Community, and all participants still have access to it today. It also gave me a home to share a course evaluation, follow up with participants, and extend the learning.

We also have a Technology Community in my school. The Instructional Technology Specialist shared resources, apps, and articles regularly. Instead of them getting lost in e-mail, the Community became a hub to check at our leisure, and an important resource in professional growth and development.

Tip: Turn off Community notifications; otherwise, you will receive an e-mail for every post. I much prefer to check at my leisure. Simply click the "Notifications on" button on the top left of the Community, as shown in the screen shot below.

I know most schools have Communities closed in the Apps Console for students. What about for teachers? How have you used Communities for professional development?

For work that is intended to be read by the teacher, Google Classroom is the go-to in my classroom. Classroom can’t do it all: it’s not an LMS, it isn’t great for class discussions, and it doesn’t integrate multimedia as well as Google Communities, but for student-to-teacher workflow, it’s perfect.

In this post, I will walk you through my workflow in assigning, creating, and previewing student writing through Google Classroom. I'll follow up next week about giving feedback and grades. I certainly didn’t invent these strategies--read all about some of them at Alice Keeler’s blog and her post here, but I like the idea of writing about my take. My plan is to share this with teachers in my building this year, but please borrow, adapt--or even better, make suggestions or improvements!

Naming Conventions

Again, this one is from Alice Keeler’s blog. She’s spot on when she advises naming assignments starting with a 3-digit number. This is a great idea for a few reasons.

It provides an easy and effective common language to discuss assignments. When a student asks about a project from two months ago, it’s so much easier to say CR 004 instead of “that Martin Luther King paper” and be able to find the information quickly.

In my gradebook (Infinite Campus), I can simply name the assignment CR 001; this naming convention matches to Classroom Assignment 001 without any further effort.

Classroom assignments create folders in Google Drive, which are alphabetized by assignment name. When you view this, numeric naming makes it so much easier since they will now be in chronological order.

Viewing the Classroom folder through Google Drive

Assigning Work

Now that we have the naming out the way, let’s work on creating an assignment. I like adding some detail to the description of the assignment, including any relevant links or resources. Here are the options and when I use them.

Students can view file.

I reserve this option almost entirely for directions or models. Most of the time, I want students to edit or copy the docs.

Students can edit file.

This doesn’t really happen in my classroom. I’ll often have students create docs and collaborate, but it’s rare that I want all 25ish students working in the same doc. If you have a strong purpose for this, make sure to provide clear procedures and expectations to avoid the confusion of mass editing.

Make a copy for each student.

This is usually my go-to option. Either, I am providing an activity for students that they need a template or copy of, or more like, I am providing a blank document.

The Blank Document

Here’s the power of the blank document: If you create the doc and assign it to students, you can always view it. No matter the assignment, that becomes my students’ note taking page, process work, and eventually their products. I can give comments on brainstorms, feedback on essays in process, and suggest edits, all before the work is submitted and without having to worry about sharing rights or links.

Instead of students submitting problematic work when it’s due, I can anticipate problems, provide formative feedback, and help students do better before the problems even arise. My students send me a message on Hangouts and ask me to take a look, or I’ll often scroll through all of my students’ work in progress on major assignments. I open up half a dozen docs at a time and use the CNTRL + TAB keyboard shortcut to scroll through. Then, I exit out of each doc with CNTRL + W. The shortcuts add up and really do save me time.

If students aren’t ready for me to provide feedback or are not yet comfortable with me viewing their work in progress or brainstorms, they know they can create a new document. I don’t force my way into their private formative and process work but make it my default option. Students who do opt out, however, need to be more active in asking for help, guidance, and feedback when necessary.

I have the freedom to look at this work either through Classroom or the Classroom folder in Google Drive. I can also open a preview in Drive and scroll through quickly to see the big picture. I tend to prefer to keep it all in Classroom, but the choice is yours and the workflow remains the same--do what works for you.

Make the Choices That Work For You

There are so many ways to navigate Drive and Classroom, and so many different strategies to get organized and manage and respond to student work. My general rule is that I only read work that is turned in (that students have clicked the turn in button to submit). If you make blank documents or templates for students, you can view unfinished and finished work, whether or not students turn them in. I won’t evaluate work until they officially turn it in, but that’s just me.

Consider the options, find the strategies that work for you and your students, and be consistent with high expectations. And don’t be afraid to try something new.

Next Time…

We’ve explored creating assignments but now we need to evaluate them. In the next Classroom Workflow post, we’ll explore previewing work, commenting in text, summative whole class comments, and using Doctopus to score writing with rubrics.

Yesterday was awesome. A few weeks ago, Chris Aviles, GEG NJ Leader, put out a call to teachers to attend what he called a Lesson Plan Jam at Google HQ in New York City. I had no idea what to expect, but couldn’t turn down a day at Google learning with friends and GAFE teachers. I love any good professional development opportunities but it was especially cool to feel like I was in a room of teachers like me. We all wanted to be there, were eager to collaborate and learn, and everyone brought something to the table besides their devices.

Plus, did I mention the food? Can’t forget the food. If you ever have the opportunity for a Google lunch, do not pass it up.

Jeff Bradbury led us through a Google Apps Iron Chef challenge, which I loved. We were grouped by subject area and then assigned a different subject area and a Google App to use to develop a lesson plan. It was fun, creative, and engaging, and is the kind of activity I want to use with my students and my staff.

Do you use the goo.gl URL shortener? If not, check out the site and extension. Did you know that if you add .qr at the end of a shortened URL, it brings to you to a QR code image? Neither did I.

One group shared how you can use Google Forms, Sheets, and Maps together to have students plot locations or track events. You can download a .csv from form results--for example, track number of sculptures in different cities, and import them into maps. Students can then add images and descriptions to the event. I’m considering using idea to track Elie Wiesel’s travels during the Holocaust in Night with my students.

The day took place in Google’s Model Classroom, which was a modern and tech-savy version of most of our classrooms--rows of desks and a projector. What made it so cool, though, was the details. The desks were comfortable, with wheels, and swiveling desk tops. The room had dual projectors and sliding white boards, so there was a lot of space to present, project, and take notes. The doors were a part of a full glass wall, so there was a lot of transparency to the hallway and outside, which I liked. I want one.

We also had a Q&A with Googler Matt Kam. Matt works for the research team on tools like Classroom, Forms, and Chrome. He told us about his background, job, and 20% Time Projects, and it was really cool to hear from him. He shared some of the perks of working at Google, like bringing pets to work, being awarded perks for doing favors for coworkers, and annual free massages on your anniversary at the company.

Matt also talked about the development of Google Classroom, sharing that Classroom really came about because of research into Google’s user base. They realized that so many of their users were in education--both students and teachers--and that they spent a lot of time managing document workflow. He wouldn’t go into too much detail--understandably--but he said to expect new features soon, which I’m excited about. Touching on 20% Time Projects, he explained his view on the company’s philosophy: “What are the ways we can continue to add value?”

The Big Take Aways

I really enjoyed the conversation, the collaboration, and being at Google. Thanks to the GEG NJ organizers; it was a great day of learning. But I also had two big take aways to focus on for the start of the school year.

My Classes Need a Homepage. I’ve branded my blogging with the SchoenBlog; I need to brand my teaching as well. In the past, students have navigated Chrome on their own to find Classroom, Communities, and other tools. Instead, I want to create a homepage through Google Sites so there is one location that centralizes online learning. I’ll link to important sites and tools from there, but one home page makes it all easier. I can embed Google Docs there, so it’s easier to maintain and update, but I want all my lesson plans, activities, and assessments to be online and public this year. I love the idea of adding a Google Hangout button to this for instant extra help.

My Classes Should Be Student Centered From Day One. I pride myself on my shifts to a student-centered classroom over the past few years, where my students are leading the learning and creating, guided by blended instruction. However, this isn’t how I traditionally start the school year and this needs to change. One idea that came up during the conversations was to treat our innovative technology-based instruction as a normal part of students’ education. My classroom shouldn’t be the one full of technology; it should be an example of what goes on in my school. I want to get started with collaborative online work on day one.

My students don’t need me to read the syllabus to them or tell them about the classroom rules; they need me to set the tone for how they will manage their own learning this year. I’m definitely looking for ideas about how to do this. I’ve seen some recent Twitter conversations about the start of the year and plan to check them out for more inspiration. How do you start the school year?

Right now, I’m considering a few possibilities. I will likely start with a Google Form to collect student information, which provides a link to the first assignment when student submit it. From the very start, students will be able to work at different paces and always move forward. I think I’ll ask them to interpret a quote or respond to a question through Padlet or another backchannel to lead into analysis and discussion. Another idea is BreakoutEDU or another critical thinking or game based activity. Something where students solve a problem through creativity, collaboration, and innovation, like the Marshmallow Challenge.

Whatever I decide, you can be sure I’ll write about it here. And I’d love to hear your ideas and feedback to help me move forward.

Welcome to take two. My first try was really good, I think, but as I wrapped up this post, Blogger didn't feel like saving it. Wish me better luck here.

Last weekend, I participated in #edcampGlobal, which despite technical difficulties--all on my end and my fault--I enjoyed it a lot. It was nice to talk about my work with Communities again, and to do so with an audience. It was also a good start to the transition back into the headspace of teaching and the school year.

Students share their Published Google Slides presentations introducing aspects of Sophocles' Oedipus, and then I share my notes to compliment theirs. All students have created new resources and used the Community to share their notes and learning with each other.

Most of the work in my classroom is written for an audience outside of the student and teacher. I really focused on creating and responding to content this year, and using Google Communities to share student work is one of my favorite ways to do it. I’m a big believer in form following function; that is, all technology should have a clear purpose. For my students, Google Classroom is where students share work with the teacher; Google Communities are where they share work with each other; Twitter, Google Forms, and sharable links are where we share work with the world.

After researching 20% Time, students share their resources and summarize their learning. Note the way links and videos are automatically embedded so that all sources are cited.

Sharing and publishing student work on Google Communities is easy and effective. Communities automatically, authentically, and intuitively embed multimedia into the stream and make it engaging and clean. You can share links, files from Drive, or even videos from YouTube with just a click or two. This is all part of standard classroom practice for my students--anything we create goes on the Community.

Why You Should Share Student Work

Every student has a voice, an audience, and a platform.

All of us are smarter than one of us.

Every student has a copy of all resources.

When students write and publish for an authentic audience, the work is better.

Online sharing creates an artifact of your classroom learning. Share it with parents, colleagues, and admin. Reflect on it in a few weeks to begin your planning for the new year.

Students filmed argument videos on their smart phones, uploaded them to YouTube, and shared on the Community. Then, they used a Google Form to vote on a winner and evaluate each argument.

Sharing on Communities: Publish to the Web

The screenshots in this post hopefully show how clean and effective integrating links, multimedia, and other resources into Communities can be. My favorite feature Google offers, though, is the Publish to the Web option. I hate nothing more than when students turn in links to Google Slides presentations that let me view the editing pane. I love giving formative and in-progress feedback, but when a product is complete, I have no interest in seeing the editing pane any longer. When it’s time to turn in the product, I want a clean and effective file, complete with playback and animation when applicable. That’s where Publish to the web comes in.

On any Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides file, click File → Publish to the web and follow the directions. What this does is creates a new link to your work but converts it into a web site, so that it is now ready to be published and shared. This link is automatically public to anyone you share with; sharing rights of the individual file are superseded by the Published link, but the editing and sharing rights in Drive are unaffected. You can share editing rights with one person, give three people the right to view, and still have the public Published link. The Published version also automatically updates every few minutes to reflect changes to the edited docs. See these examples of a doc and sheet from my classroom.

See the difference with these links to my #edcampGlobal presentation. This one is shared in the Google Slides editor so that anyone with the link can view. This one is published--and looks so much better, right?

The Tricky Part on Communities

If you are Publishing files to share at presentations or online, my directions above will work out beautifully. This is how I do it for my own conference presentations and professional development. However, sharing on a Community can be slightly trickier. Here’s why:

In Communities, if you share the first link, the sharing rights matter. If you share the second, they don’t and the work will be public in its published form. Still following me? Basically, the easiest solution is to change all sharing rights so that anyone with the link can view if you plan to have students share Published work on Communities. This is what I do in my classroom and it works out nicely.

Google+ may be on its way out but in my teaching, Communities are here to stay. They are one of the most underutilized and undervalued platforms Google offers and I hope to keep writing about how and why they changed my teaching and my students’ learning for the better.

What questions do you have about Google Communities? How do or don’t you use them in your schools? Comment away or find me on Twitter @MrSchoenbart.

About Me

Adam is a high school teacher, technology coach, Google for Education Certified Trainer, and EdD candidate. He is one of the National School Board Association's “20 to Watch” Educational Technology Leaders for 2016. He is also the co-founder of The Education Calendar, a crowdsourced map and calendar of education events worldwide. Adam teaches in New York in a 1:1 Chromebook classroom and blogs about teaching and educational technology at aschoenbart.com. He can be reached at aschoenbart@gmail.com and would love to connect on Twitter @MrSchoenbart.